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Trinity: "A Foul and Awesome Display"

Friday, July 16, 2010

Trinity: "A Foul and Awesome Display"

by

Abby Zimet

It was at 5:30 a.m. on
this day
65 years ago that the world's first atomic bomb, dubbed Trinity, exploded
over a portion of the New Mexico desert known as the Jornada del Muerto
- Journey of the Dead Man. A witness described the fireball as "the
brightest light I have ever
seen - it blasted, it pounced, it bored its way right through you.
It was a vision which was seen with more than the eye. It was seen to
last forever."

"I am become Death, the
shatterer of worlds." - lead physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting
from The Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text.

"Now we are all sons of bitches." - Trinity test director Kenneth
Bainbridge.

Further

Academics are increasingly, ingeniously fighting back against an Orwellian "Professor Watchlist" aimed at exposing "radical" teachers. The list has inspired online trolls to name their own suspects - Albus Dumbledore, Dr. Pepper, Mr. Spock - and a Watchlist Redux to honor not trash targets from Jesus to teachers daring to "think critically about power." Now 100 Notre Dame profs have asked to join the list in solidarity, proclaiming, "We wish to be counted among those you are watching."